Bonsignore: XFL to relaunch? Vince McMahon wrongly thinks the public is ready

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In this Oct. 30, 2010 file photo, WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon speaks to an audience during a WWE fan appreciation event in Hartford, Conn. McMahon announced on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018 that he plans to relaunch the XFL pro football league in 2020. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

Nearly 20 years ago Vince McMahon put his finger on the pulse of American football fans and concluded an appetite for titillation, savage hits and contrived entertainment was not being satisfied by the NFL.

So he came up with the XFL, an alternative professional football league to the NFL in which scantily clad cheerleaders paraded around and fair catches were outlawed and political correctness was scoffed at and a not-so subtle call for savagery was loudly and proudly issued.

“This will not be a league for pantywaists and sissies.” McMahon said at the XFL’s introductory press conference back in 1999.

With that, the WWE founder poured millions of dollars into his belief that America’s primal needs were not being met by the NFL, then hoodwinked a bunch of otherwise savvy television executives into riding shotgun with him on his conviction.

The XFL officially debuted in 2001 with eight teams populating cities ranging from Los Angeles to New York were backed by a national TV contract with NBC.

A curious, sizable audience tuned in on opening weekend, took one look at the ridiculously mediocre level of play and gimmicks and shenanigans and immediately turned away. Never to return.

Within one year, the XFL folded. America, as it turns out, just wanted good football. The XFL delivered everything but.

But McMahon was so busy trying to tap into all the other elements he perceived as important he completely missed that critical point. You’d think the millions upon millions of dollars he lost as a result would have taught him a life-long lesson. But it most certainly didn’t.

Maybe it’s because he’s been seduced by his own remarkable success marketing the scripted WWE he believes the same rules apply to real sports.

The lure and appeal of the WWE rests in the production and packaging inside and outside the ring. It’s all about perception and deception and storylines. Ride the ones that work. Discard the ones that don’t. Just keep giving the audience entertainment it will latch onto.

That obviously works for the heavily produced and scripted WWE. A whole lot of people love it, even though they know full well it’s all make believe. It’s not a sporting event, it’s entertainment.

And you can understand how the mastermind of it all — Vince McMahon — might actually believe real sports can be altered for the better simply but tweaking a script or casting a specific-type player or packaging it a certain way.

He’s wrong, of course. The beauty of real sports is their authenticity.

Yet two decades after his XFL failure McMahon once again believes he’s in tune with the desires of American football fans. And once again he’s concluded their appetite is not being met by the NFL.

This time it has nothing to do with sex appeal or violence or titillation. Quite the contrary, actually.

In one of the more remarkable 180s in sports history McMahon has decided America now longs for a more homogeneous brand of football in which players toe the straightest of lines and safety is a priority and everyone stands tall and proud for the national anthem — or else — and social commentary is forbidden during work hours and players with even the slightest hint of a checkered past need not apply.

As for the cheerleaders, they aren’t just covering up, they’re nowhere to be found!

“Football ‘Merica style!!!!!” are the new voices screaming into McMahon’s ear. His answer: A re-booted XFL set to debut in 2020 in which he delivers the kind of football players and football product he believes America now clamors for.

“We’re going to give the game of football back to the fans,” McMahon said Thursday on a conference call to unveil his new XFL plan.

It’s a not-so subtle poke at the NFL, specifically the balancing act the league is confronting trying to provide a viable voice to socially conscious players while also ensuring a safe haven fans can retreat to on weekends to get away from everyday problems and issues.

Las Vegas Outlaws cheerleaders take the field at the start of the XFL opener in Las Vegas against the New York/New Jersey Hitmen, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2001, in Las Vegas. The scantily clad cheerleaders of the league garnered nearly as much attention as the players. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

It’s a difficult scale to perpetually keep steady, as players rightfully utilize their platforms to push needed social reform while some fans understandably wish for three hours to blissfully escape from it all.

And it can always gets a little dicey when the national anthem is involved. While the majority of fans understand some players kneeling during the anthem is a way to raise awareness for social injustice (and not a slight on the American flag itself) that message isn’t always delivered or received successfully.

As a result, some fans are choosing to abandon the NFL for what they perceive is disrespect to America.

The league’s diminished TV ratings reflects some of that fan disenchantment, although plenty of other dynamics factor into a viewership decline that’s been felt across all of television and not just the NFL. McMahon, ever the shuckster, looks at those reduced TV numbers and concludes there is a market for fans who want their football players to act and talk and maybe even look a certain way.

“The national anthem is a time-honored tradition that’s played to this day and many, many years in the past prior to most athletic events in our country and other countries,” McMahon said. “So whatever the rules are are what everyone will abide by. There’s plenty of opportunities and plenty of ways in which players, coaches and members of the media can express yourselves in terms of your own personal views as far as social aspects are concerned—whether or not that’s Twitter or Facebook or whatever, but again we’re here to play football.”

You can imagine how well that might be received by the fan whose stomach turns when an NFL player takes a knee during the national anthem. Not that it really ever affects their enjoyment of the actual game. Last I checked, no one ever protested during a play. But you understand.

And maybe some fans will tune into the XFL on the sheer basis of the national anthem going off before each game without a hitch. Just like some fans probably watched the old XFL for the scantily clad cheerleaders or no holds barred physicality. But just as it was 17 years ago, so will it be two years from now: If McMahon’s new XFL relies all on packaging and presentation and presumption and delivering to fans what he thinks they want rather than what they actually need or deserve, he’s in for another rude awakening.

For all it’s issues — concussions, players getting in trouble, some fans irked by social protest — the NFL perseveres because it delivers the highest level of football in the world. It’s why fans continue to tune in. It’s why they keep coming back year after year after year.

If McMahon hopes to drive his new league down the field, that’s where his focus should be. He might actually have a chance if he markets the league as a quasi farm system for the NFL in which players and coaches can hone their craft awaiting graduation to the big leagues.

If he’s focused only on external dynamics and catering to people’s perceptions and misgivings and patriotism and fears and misunderstandings, he’s making another mistake.

Vincent Bonsignore is an NFL columnist for the Southern California News Group. Having covered the Los Angeles sports scene for more than two decades, Bonsignore has emerged as one of the leading voices on the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, the NFL and NFL relocation.

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